Notes For Bass Clarinet

Notes For Bass Clarinet – A question that is often asked is the use of key with the bass clarinet. The majority of bass clarinet music is written so that the notes the clarinet player sees correspond to the same fingers they would use on any other clarinet. This means that it is written in G, but sounds an octave lower than the B♭ soprano clarinet (a significant ninth lower than the concert key).

However, bass clarinet music is also written in bass clef, especially in older orchestral music. The logic is that some composers like to note the octave that the instrument sounds in. Because of the bass clarinet’s enormous range, however, one key is not enough. In the staggered octave, a low-C bass clarinet extends from two ledger lines below the beam of the bass clef to at least two ledger lines above the treble clef (and my ring diagram is an octave above that!) instead uses up to eight or eleven ledger lines above the bass clef or a

Notes For Bass Clarinet

) marking, composers will switch to treble G for the upper range. This means that the treble clef must be played an octave higher than where it is read, but this is not always the case, and this is where the confusion begins.

Brian Belski

There are four notation practices used when composing for the bass clarinet – French, German, Russian (mixed) and Italian. Here’s an explanation of each practice and the different ways composers can use the treble and bass solos when writing for the bass clarinet.

French notation writes everything in treble clef using the transposition of a major ninth from concert pitch. The clarinetist uses the same rings for the bass clarinet as he would on a soprano clarinet, but sounds an octave lower. The logic is that the clarinetist does not need to think about different fingerings, but plays them all as they usually do. This results in more ledger lines, as the low C is written in the space below the fourth ledger line below the staff, but this is only one more ledger line than the clarinetist is used to reading. French is the most common notation for the bass clarinet and creates the least confusion.

Figure 3. Example of French notation. The notes are played with the same fingers used on the B♭ clarinet, but are pitched an octave lower. From Ravel

It should be noted that this does not mean that French composers do not use bass clef at all. For example, Doukas writes in bass clef i

Four Octave Tremolo/moving Passages Chart With Quarter Tones For Bass Clarinet

German notation uses a bass clef in the transposition of a major second from the concert key, like the clarinet, instead of a major ninth. The logic is that G clef continues the same metaphor. However, this means that the clarinetist must play the notes in the treble clef an octave higher than they normally would when reading the printed sheet music. The majority of bass clarinet music that uses bass clef is in German notation.

Figure 5. Example of German notation. The G clef remains a transpose of a second, so it is played an octave higher than the reading. From Strauss

, Strauss uses bass clef for the lower register. In the second bar in practice mark J, however, there is a switch to a treble split. This line is clearly intended to continue up through the split register rather than jump from F-flat down to a G♯ neck on the split change. Instead of using four lines in the ledger above the bass clef, he switched to a treble clef, and this is meant to be played an octave higher than a clarinet player would normally read when reading these notes.

Again, it should be noted that not all German composers use this notation. Mahler, for example, used French notation.

Library Of Congress March

It may not make sense to keep the transposition of a major second, but it probably makes more sense to use a bass clef for the lower register, and when the clarinetist encounters a treble clef, he should read it as normal. This is how it is done in Russian (also called mixed) notation. The bass clef is read as a transposition of a major second as in German notation, but the treble clef is transposed with a major ninth as in French notation.

Figure 7. Example of Russian notation. The G clef is read as normal, the transposition of a major ninth, and the bass clef is read as the transposition of a major second. From Stravinsky

. The line at point 2 of the sample is descending B♭-A-G♯ in chalumeau register, but switches from treble to bass clef midway through to avoid extra lines in the ledger.

Figure 8 is from further down the page. Although it is theoretically possible to play this passage in the treble clef an octave higher, it would be technically very uncomfortable for the fingers, and no composer would have written so high for the bass clarinet in 1910, when Stravinsky composed it. This is to be played with the fingers that a clarinetist would normally use, therefore using a transposition of a major ninth.

Seven Nation Army

There is a fourth way of notating the bass clarinet, although I have personally come across it only once, i

By Luigi Nono. Harry Sparnaay states that he had seen it with some regularity from some Italian composers in the past, but not for so long.[1] That’s why I call it Italian notation to follow the naming convention. Nono indicates at the top of the bass clarinet section that the bass clef is shifted a major ninth –

(sounds) B♭2 on the stem – so we have to play it an octave lower than if we read it as a German note. The first note in Figure 10 is a low F, not the thumb F. The key of G also has a major ninth, so it sounds like a clarinetist would normally do.

A composer using bass notation will follow the same principles if he writes for the bass clarinet in A, transposed accordingly. Thus, the German note in A remains transposed a minor third throughout, and the Russian notation is a minor third in the bass clef and a minor tenth in the treble clef.

Robert Buckley

Unfortunately, it is not always clear which notation a composer uses. These national conventions can be a starting point, but as mentioned before, they are not the norm, and there are composers from many more countries than these four. Often it will help to answer the question by applying some logical thinking to the context of the music.

One of the reasons to change key is to avoid ledger lines. There may be some notes that overlap in both keys, as a composer would not normally change the solos for individual notes that exceed the threshold when the rest of the material remains in the other key. If the component was in bass clef but changes to treble clef, check if it made sense to change key to avoid ledger lines. In that case, it should probably be played up an octave.

Look at the lines and direction of the music. If a key change creates a big jump in what would otherwise continue a more linear line, play it in the octave that continues the line, as in the Strauss passage in Figure 5 or the Stravinsky passage in Figure 7.

Look at the material in each key and whether it makes sense to be in one octave or the other. Picture 11 is by the Australian composer Maria Grenfell

Christmas. Silent Night, Holy Night Clarinet, Alto Sax, Bass Clarinet, Baritone Horn, Trombone, Piano Classical Sheet Music

It uses both treble and bass clef, but to play treble as written it will place everything in the same area as the bass clef material. It would not make sense to use two keys in this case. It uses German notation and the treble clef will be played in an octave. The key change in line 43 is another clue. The line continues from the B at the top of the bass clef to the adjacent C♯, but is now written in the treble clef.

Also consider the range. Composition for the bass clarinet in the altissimo register is a relatively recent development, especially in an orchestral setting. If playing the solo up an octave results in a lot of very high notes, it should probably be down an octave.

See the full score. A score for concert pitch will be written in pitch and octave and may answer the question immediately or may be made clear based on the musical material on the other instruments.

Figure 12 is from the beginning of Rachmaninoff’s Third Symphony. This score is transposed and notated in the same way as the parts, so it is not useful for providing the sound fields. However, the bass clarinet section can be compared to the clarinets and bassoons to see that Russian notation is used. If the treble-clef part of the bass clarinet part were played up an octave, it would be in closer harmony with the clarinets and unison at the end of the measure. Although this is possible, it is not the most efficient scoring. Rachmaninoff could have written for

John Barnes Chance

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